What Should Have Been
by Lady Strallan
Summary: This is how I thought series 3 might have played out, when I read spoilers about Edith's wedding and her going to London before the start of series 3.
1. Chapter 1

**Please excuse all spelling and grammar mistakes,I have always struggled with basic literacy and I do not have a beta reader.**

**This is my version of series 3.**

Edith sat there stunned, she had reread the letter twice but she still could hardly believe it, she never though she would get the secretary job, but she thought while her family was in London she might apply for some secretarial Jobs just to see what an interview was like and to make sure her research was correct when it came to wages and hours.

She had taken the same course Gwen had taken to get her qualifications ,hiding her typewriter and course work in a disused cottage on the estate.

She had taken lessons in basic cooking and housework from a war widow in the village in exchange for a few shillings and letting her keep whatever she cooked.

Using the fact that the women really need the money and food to insure the women kept her secret.

Edith knew she would have to move quickly has the Job started on Monday and she knew she could not stop under her father's roof once he realised what she was doing.

She had been saving the pin-money her family gave her for years, and she also had some unwanted Christmas presents that she could take to a pawn shop to raise further funds.

She knew the money she had saved would probably only get her a room in a slum somewhere 'but the more she thought about it the more she realised she would rather sleep under a bridge than go back to Downton and be the spinster aunt.

She was sick and tired at being made to pay for the fact that her twin brother had died at birth and she had survive.

They never treated Mary and Sybil badly for being born girls, even when they thought Mary was going to marry Patrick they never seemed bothered about helping her find someone to marry.

And when she found a wonderful man, who not only would have been a good match for her 'but she also loved they sent him away and dragged her to London not caring what would happen to her once her parents died leaving her to have to go begging to Mary for a place to sleep and the clothes on her back.

She folded the letter back in to the envelope and placed it into her pocket then she went to get her hat and coat so she could start looking for a place to start her new life.


	2. Chapter 2

Edith packed away the last of her cleaning supply's and suppressed a yawn, she had had a busy couple of days she had managed to find a room and get it furnished.

The room wasn't very big there was a sink, a small stove and just enough room for a small table with four chairs and a bed in the corner that she managed to pick up from a second hand shop and get delivered earlier that day.

It was a little nosier than what she was use to but she thought she would get use to it as well as sharing a outdoor toilet with everyone else in the street.

Now all she had to do was tell her parents about her new life which she was planning to do tonight, so she could move in to her new home tomorrow morning.

Not that there was much to take she had already taken most of the clothes she would be needing, all she had left to pick up was her jewellery box and her typewriter which she would ask her family to send on to her.

Edith let herself into the house and was about to run upstairs and get change for dinner, she had lost track of time and she knew it would not go down to well if she kept her family from their dinner.

When she ran straight into her father, she was about to apologise when she notice a thunderous look on his face.

'Where have you been Mr Lucas came round for tea and no one knew were you where?'

Edith resist the urge to roll her eyes, Mr Lucas was some relation to her uncle in India who she wrote too.

He said he was moving back to Britain and had paid them a visit on the pretence of delving a letter to Edith from her uncle, and for a unknown reason he had took a liking to her, unfortunately she found him quite the bore but no matter what she said or did her family seemed intent on pushing the two of them together.

'Sorry papa I did not think anyone would miss me'

Robert just rolled his eyes at his middle daughter 'really Edith you have to stop wondering around London on your own it's not be fitting a lady of your station.'

Edith bit her tongue, she decided now was not the time to start a argument after all she only had to put up with being treated like a child for one more evening then she would be free.

'If you excuse me Papa I need to get ready for dinner' Edith ran upstairs before her father could say anything else.

She decided not to bother to ring for a maid she just just change her dress and put a brush though her hair than ran downstairs for dinner silently praying that the evening would not end in a argument.


End file.
